「Blue glass moon」

Build, build, build the tension toward the climax.

The Calm Before The Storm

I know what you want to say. “But Stilts! Didn’t we just have five episodes of calm before the storm? Also, you’re weirdly tall and smell like whiskey.” Good point. Also, I hate you and you’re rude. And whiskey smells delicious! Drink of the gods, I tells ya.

The last few episodes were certainly calm—or at least, not harrowing—but this is the calm right before the storm, when you can feel the rain coming, and know you don’t have long to get inside before you’re going to be soaked and/or electrocuted. Which goes to show how optional the past two episodes were, even if I would have been sad to do without episode five. (Episode four, not so much.) They foreshadowed whatever is going to happen to Miyu so much that, here when we have it foreshadowed one more time, it seems tiresome. Almost. What I like is that Illya doesn’t run away from the question this time. Here, at the last moment before the battle, Illya chooses not to ask, the same was Luvia makes the same choice. So it was foreshadowing, sure, but also progress. Even if you just know the storm is about to blow in, and it’s going to blow everything to hell.

Pool Party, House Party

No doubt they packed a little more comedy (and a few much-appreciated va-voom swimsuits, yowza!) in before we get to the Fate-style grimdark combat. All solid gags all around, though I did sigh when Sella rounded the corner, saw Illya and Kuro dripping wet (not that way, perverts), and … jumped straight to blaming Shirou, even though anyone with half an ounce of pattern recognition would know this is all Iri’s doing. On the other hand, Iri pulling out the Shirou gravure shots and dangling them in front of Luvia and Rin was magical. Always be trolling, Iri. Always be trolling! Though am I the only one who wants Kiritsugu to show up, just so Prisma|Iri can troll him too? There’s potential here, people. Maybe next season. (I don’t want to know if that happens or not, use spoiler tags.)

Looking Ahead – The Battle To Come

I know what you want to say. (Damn, you’re chatty today.) “Stilts! Why did you only do two quick sections and call it quits? You lazy, sexy sonofagun.” Well, thank you on both counts. And I stopped there because, A) Theorizing about Miyu’s dealio kind of loses some of its luster when there are so many manga readers who know exactly what’s going on (spoiler tags, dammit!), and when we’ve already spent all season wondering about it, and 2) Because it’s hard to talk about what’s coming up because I could spoil events for others with my half-cocked assumptions based off the other Fate universes. I mean, we all know who the 8th card is, right? Plus the preview practically screams, “There’s a hard time for Bazett coming up!”, which only cements it. The buildup episode did its job, not much else to say on that score.

About the most I could do is opine on whether I think Iri really doesn’t know anything about the cards or not, but I doubt she does (she doesn’t strike me as sociopath enough to lie to her daughters), so case closed. I’d rather just look at her in a bikini. Or better yet, join in. Liz was pretty much hired just to be Iri’s playmate, wasn’t she? Good work if you can get it. Lucky meido.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – It’s a build up episode, with swimsuits, house parties, Miyu angst, Bazett failing at life, & a battle about to begin #prismaillya s3e6

Random thoughts:

  • That’s not how breasts and water work, guys. I’m pretty sure. Come to think of it, I haven’t tried. Hmm… I guess I must try it out, FOR SCIENCE!
  • There are so many maids being useless at this party. Get to work, Sella and Miyu! Useless maid of Liz’s job.
  • “Is my meat not to your liking?” Shirou needs an adult, Shirou needs an adult! (He is an adult. Oh noes!)
  • Rin’s plan: “[We’ll] engage it with max firepower and end it with the first strike!” In other words, the Nanoha Gambit. Full power, total destruction!
  • Am I the only one that wants to see one of them become Berserker? That would be awesome! Girl abs for days.
  • Oh, you’re the comforting character, are you, Ruby-chan? *slaps* Don’t @#%^ with us! We haven’t forgotten about what you did, Rubisenberg!
  • Who noticed that Miyu is wearing that sheer number that Luvia got her, only with a shawl? Not me, because I’m not ecchi. *whistles*
  • Awwwww, Luvia-san is a good onee-san for Miyu. It’s hard to remember that Luvia’s a good person when she spends so much time being horrible with Rin.
  • The one good thing to come from episode four: They brought back the lion suit. Still overall a waste of time, but at least they salvaged one thing.
  • Sorry Prisma Illya. You do a lot of things well, but you’ll never match UBW on Rin reaction faces. But I appreciate the effort.

My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now available in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel short story. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: Rejection, the secret place, & fundamentals, What are your two skills?, Passing the Bechdel Test, and Absence (from work) makes the heart grow fonder.

Full-length images: 03, 07, 27.

 

ED2 Sequence

ED2: 「Wishing diary」 by Kouda Yumeha

Preview

50 Comments

  1. Finally the ball got rolling – it’s about bloody time! This episode reminded me too how I missed the more serious parts of the Illya series, because it’s their juxtaposition with the more silly parts that usually makes the show work. The way they built the tension was pretty well done (you just know their ‘one-hit kill’ strat won’t work), there’s some interesting plot stuff (Iri doesn’t know about the cards? Huh.) and tender moments with Miyu (I half forgot she’s actually Luvia’s genuine little sister by ways of adoption). More of this, please.

    And damn, Illya’s mom has got it goin’ on.

    Dvalinn
  2. Great tension builders plus come What? moments like Iri not knowing about the cards. In fact the fact that the heroic sports are cards was discussed but not that much in that chat, so in oh well I guess that’s how it works in this universe manner the matter got dropped.

    Love that Bazett did not like the fact that young ones were involved, it was just her professionalism that if they were involved against her she would have killed em.

    Iri is hot.

    Talk about grim/dark what ever Kiritsugu is doing to prevent a new grail war certainly qualifies. He’s being a good dad even though he does not get time to enjoy being one.

    RedRocket
    1. Kiri is doing what he should have done in the main storyline.

      Speaking of, I think Prisma Illya is what happens when all the Fate people stop acting like dysfunctional, twisted, fundamentally broken obsessives. The adults, at least.

    2. I’d actually say he gets to be a good day. Remember, Shirou says he actually DOES get to come home every now and then. Also, so does Iri. This is about as happy as they can have it.

      I’m pretty sure that whatever Kiri is doing, it’ll be probably be the moment Prism Illya heads to the end game of its story.

      Dorian
  3. One thing I particularly enjoy in Prism Illya are the little bits where they show how the world would’ve changed only due to a single decision being different.

    Like how Kiritsugu decided against finishing the war – so he never had to actually face where his ideals would lead (his chat with the Grail). So naturally, he goes on killing people business as usual, instead of settling down (as a broken man).

    Ravenlord
    1. Actually are we sure about that? The suggestion that he’s dealing with all the problems would probably suggest that he’s not killing anyone. I mean, as the great Shirou would say “when people die, they are dead”; therefore it is a little hard for them to cause problems when they are dead.

      Dorian
      1. The Einzberns did disappear all of a sudden. This, coupled with Iri saying that Kiri is working to make sure the Grail War doesn’t happen again, strongly hints that Kiritsugu simply murdered the whole lot of them.

        This solution would fit his “original” personality, too.

        Ravenlord
      2. I have a feeling Kiri (& Iri) did a lot ‘o murdering to get to this point. The Einzberns weren’t going to just let them go, after all. That doesn’t mean he’s still going around doing a bunch of murdering, though. Doesn’t mean he isn’t either, to be fair.

      3. Well this is true. I just don’t think that if they were still doing it though that Iri would be able to not do that with Caren though. Heck, Luvia and Rin are still alive aren’t they?

        Then again, no one’s actively making a move against Iri and Kiri either. So it could be that whatever Kiri is doing has put them at a standstill…

        🙂 I love speculating on stuff like this.

        Dorian
      4. Dorian: My best guess for Kiri being left alone would be, “don’t mess with the magus-killer who has single-handedly destroyed the Einzberns”. After wiping out such a powerful family, I think Kiritsugu would be The Thing that magus parents scare their kids with.

        Luvia and Rin don’t matter at all. They are both very small fries, to be honest. Even in the grimdark F/S Rin was merely picked as a player, and she was still much weaker than the “usual” contestants; and in turn, those guys were pitifully weak compared to those who created the Grail and supposedly maintained it. At least, that’s the impression I always got. Long story short, Kiri would have absolutely no reason to go after either girls. They couldn’t restart the game even if they wanted to.

        As for Caren… spoilering the answer. It should be fairly obvious, but eh, better safe than sorry. Show Spoiler ▼

        Ravenlord
    2. There was a scene where Luvia and Rin discussed they had ran into dead ends on what was actually going on. All they knew was many people were involved in a major magic ritual in history but no idea of what. Iri actually with Kuro is the first time they actually learned about the Grail War. So as ignorants Luvia and Rin did not make Kiritsugu need to do something about them list.

      RedRocket
  4. Berserker would fit more on Kuro. Because to be an Berserker you need a control Darker Side of yourself. This rush for Blood, to kill your Enemy no Destroy him!! Affection, that i can see more on Kuro then on our “White Maiden” Illya. Or how we call White Berserker? fanatic Crusaders?

    I think who out of these 3 can be the Female Caster? I think Miyu could fit here. Caster was cold and controlled.

    WorldwideDepp
    1. My Speculation of Miyu:

      Show Spoiler ▼

      WorldwideDepp
      1. Kuro actually fits the Archer mold, hence why she came from that card. Don’t forget, that she’s also the original Illya personality. Getting Unlimited Blade Works actually fits if you know all about the original Illya as well.

        In terms of Caster, our Illya is the best suited. Her magical power is off the chart and grant her the ability to use any of the known Casters of Fate, would make her a devastating magical girl. And I’d actually say she’s got much of the ideology as a Caster, since she schemed how to deal with Miyu in such a way that it allowed her to keep her sights on the current objective. Casters seem to be really good at that.

        Miyu is suited for Saber. Her personality is that of a Lord. I hesitate to use Knight, since she’s displayed a lot of similarities to those in royalty as well. Especially in concerns with money. Basically, it is her conviction that makes her be able to be as powerful as she is, and Sabers are nothing if not full of conviction.

        Out of the others, Miyu would also work well with Lancer, Kuro with Assassin (if she could change class) and Illya with Rider.

        As for Berserker, out of the 7 cards, this one doesn’t actually suit any of our three heroes. Even then, I’d probably say Illya simply because when she goes berserk, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

        Also, I like your guess.

        Dorian
  5. I just dont know if Iris spreading fanservice photos of shirou is best or worst mom ever…
    Shirou getting blamed for EVERYTHING is just so standard that it doesnt even entce m e to laugh anymore…
    looking forward to:
    -8th card! new class? or second card of one of the classes?
    -secret of Miyu’s origins

    ewok40k
    1. Best mom ever. Think about it. She knows all these girls like Shirou. She’s helping them foster which will become her daughter-in-law. She doesn’t really care who, which is why she promotes Illya and Kuro, because Shirou is her son and she wants him to be as happy as she is.

      Dorian
      1. Well, there’s no reason she can’t troll and promote her step-son’s future happiness all at once. Rin, Luvia, Illya, Kuro, Miyu, Sella… no matter who it is, Shirou’s pretty much blessed for life. Except maybe Sella, but I only added her because if there was any more sexual tension between these two they’d already be going at it in secret. Which wouldn’t be secret because Iri is God of that house.

        Aex
      2. Actually Alex, you bring up a good point.

        Aren’t Stella and Shirou a lot more close than you’d think? I mean she’s not really promoted as much more than just a character he knows in all the other timelines.

        And although Iri is Goddess of that house, that doesn’t mean she’d know everything.

        Also, it is weird how well those two connect with each other. I mean Shirou continually goes out of his way to help her out and to compete with her. Pays way more…

        Aw, no. 🙁 Illya your worst enemy for your Oni-chan is Stella and not Kuro!

        Dorian
  6. Can I just say that something has bothered me for a long while now and it wasn’t until recently that it hit home.

    Where’s Sakura? I’ve never really thought about it until now, but Sakura’s not in Illya at all. And I only thought about it because I felt like something has been missing in Prism. I mean, it isn’t like she needs to be there just…

    Why am I suddenly very afraid of what happens if she shows up as a character?

    *shudders*

    As for the episode, I loved the build up for it. Can’t wait for what’s to come!

    Dorian
    1. Shinji isn’t here either. Though we can leave him out and it won’t bother me.

      My best guess is that the reason Sakura hasn’t showed up is that there’s no reason for her to have showed up. Sakura, as a character, has next to no relation to Illya as a character. Rin wouldn’t in this timeline without Ruby, but even in the main timelines, I don’t think Illya and Sakura ever really interact, if it weren’t for Shirou. And since Shirou isn’t the main character here, there’s been no reason for her to appear. It’d just crowd an already large cast of characters.

      Or they’re saving her. Who knows.

    2. Sakura showed up in a side story chapter I believe. Which had more of Rin’s and Luvia’s antics.

      She shows up again in 3rei, but mentioning anything more will be spoilery so I’ll refrain from it.

      Hanabira.Kage
      1. Oh gods, that means she’s less Sakura, more Dark Sakura, doesn’t it? If that’s true then I hate where 3rei is going already… talk about a girl that never gets a break.

        Aex
      2. Well, Stilts, I’m more concerned because of the whole thing in which Kiri and Iri are fighting to protect Shirou and Illya’s every day life (and everyone else’s). Considering how screwed up the Matou household is and the main character of that household not being around, it makes me entirely fearful of what happens when Sakura does show up.

        🙁 Poor girl really doesn’t need anymore crap.

        @Hanabira
        3rei has her in it? Aw man… I’m so tempted to read it now. And also going “STOP BEING MEAN TO SAKURA”. Poor girl. 🙁

        Dorian
  7. Damn, I’m really excited to get down to the action now that we’re all pumped and ready! Hopefully, they’ll adapt 3rei cause it seems they won’t be able to do too much with only 4 ep left.

    PS: Stilts, you noticed Miyu wearing the sheer at the end of the episode? S-Stilts no ecchi! :O

    Trap Master
  8. I’m sorry but Shirou getting beat up in this episode made me frustrated with how lazy the humor is in this show sometimes. I understand the whole “misunderstanding” slapstick but it helps if the character is ACTUALLY in a position that could be misconstrued. Which is why the magical “accidentally falling in a comprising position” cliche was born. Or the “someone showing up when they do something wrong at the EXACT time” cliche. But they didn’t have the tack to use either. Sella literally came around the corner and said “Hey Shirou you haven’t been abused nearly enough lately. Let’s change that!”.

    @#$*! mother @#$*! balls fuck cunt fart!

    (regains composure)

    Also Buzet I’m sorry girl but you have no room to talk about respect. Pretty sure you tried to kill these little children not to long ago. Who the hell wants YOUR respect you hypocrite? GTFO you psycho bitch! >:(

    Anyways now the good stuff. The scene between Luvia and Miyu was the major stand out to me. Mostly because as you said Stilts Luvia has yet to really show us the compassionate side of her when the anime is constantly having her and Rin fight all the time. To be honest Luvia and Rin are no different than those kinds of characters in stories that just deliver exposition/plot, being intentionally vague about their true intentions and just telling the main characters what to do the whole time. So it’s nice to actually see more characterization being established for them even if it’s a little. Still waiting for Rin’s turn though.

    Oh and it’s pretty obvious that their plan isn’t going to work. That’s not how these sort of things go. Whenever the audience is told what the heroes entire plan is it NEVER goes their way. NEVER. Ok MAYBE there are a couple exceptions out there but for big operations like this no. But if the audience is NOT shown the plan they usually just explain what it was after the fact and it turns out everything DID go according to plan. Screenwriting 101 really.

    Seems like Berserker might eventually end up in Buzet’s hands since she’s the only person who could possibly use it. Even though they SAID it was a competition we know she’ll team up with them so it makes sense to me. Just a guess though. Regardless, I can’t wait for some REAL tension! Hooray for plot! 🙂

    leatherhead333
    1. The least you could do is learning the character’s name. It’s Bazett.

      As for respect… I don’t see why Bazett should have let herself get mowed down by Illya&Kuro. Anyone who enters combat is fair game; Bazett had no reason to assume that the girls couldn’t simply flee instead of handing the cards over (as she has no idea who Kuro really is). All that doesn’t mean she can’t have an opinion about the fact, though. Especially since, you know, child soldiers are generally frowned upon.

      Ravenlord
      1. As for your first point. Don’t care and doesn’t effect anything I’ve said.

        Secondly Buzet (I’m a douche) was pretty much toying with most of them the whole fight yet she still intended to kill them. It wasn’t until she was marked with the curse that she considered just fighting NOT to kill because she was forced to. If she had simply stopped walking around like the Terminator giving her opponents time to drag out the fight she could have ended it quickly WITHOUT trying to kill them or caused the amount of damage that resulted from the battle. Plus when Kuro said that the card was inside her did Buzet even hesitate to try to take it from her body? No. She didn’t give any fucks if she had to kill her to get the card. So all that considered she really can’t talk down to someone about such matters. She knows nothing about their situation and simply made a conclusion that Rin and Luvia were involving them for no good reason which is pretty naive of her. Her opinion is not worthy of notice.

        leatherhead333
    2. When I was an Army officer I would not have let child solders stop me from taking a objective because they were children. All the blame goes to those using the child solders not to those having to kill them. So you can consider mine and Bazett opinion wrong but it’s not hypocritical. Now it being a magical world maybe Bazett is naive, she does not seam to be the brightest bulb outside of her narrow specialization. Being naive is a flaw but again not hypocritical. Now Bazett might be evil in that she considers her organizations needs at a country at war level when it may be only a greedy power speaking organization, but here I think again Bazett is not that bright someone sold her a bad things for mankind if she does not achieve her mission idea. So Bazett not a hypocrite but she may be stupid or evil in a narrow way or both.

      RedRocket
      1. That argument is a bit of strawman don’t you think? I work with guys who have to kill children soldiers, heck even innocent children that had bombs strapped to them. That’s not comparable at all this situation and I’m a little bothered you made that comparison.

        In real life people don’t have the abilities Buzet does. I’m certain it’s within her ability to harmlessly knock out her opponents. Especially if she actually decided to become serious. That comparison is way off the mark. These are magical girls fighting. Not people fighting with guns or bombs (ironically both things she could survive without a problem). Shit if she wanted she could probably take out an entire army without killing a single person.

        Also most of what you’ve said about her motivations are pure speculation. We know absolutely nothing about the character besides the fact she works for a shady organization. If what you’ve speculated comes to light I might change my opinion of her but I see no real reason to think this character has any respect that I would want. We’ve never been given much reason to sympathize with the character (the whole being broke thing is only comedic) or see her point of view.

        leatherhead333
      2. Well Bazett did not kill any of them even though she probably could have finished one of them off. In example when she had Illiya by the leg she was happy to just take the card not bash her brains out first making it easier. It was just Kuro that when Bazett when she learned she had to kill her to get her card that Bazett went I’ll have to kill her.
        So yes Bazett had and used less lethal attacks before.
        Not really a straw man argument more a somewhat off topic argument now that you mention it. The earlier fight was with with attacks that can kill but not at the bullet level of deadly except for the Butler who almost died. Maybe I should have gone for Soldiers vs rock slingers especially on the West bank. Sling rocks can kill and were used in military units in ancient times but rubber bullets are used instead of lead when the slingers start getting into a range where they can kill at. Or any riot world wide where night sticks are used on sometimes underage rioters.
        Still I see nothing wrong with pointing out to the other side stop using young people in your less lethal combat situation as my less lethal force still can permanently injure and kill and I’m not going to let the side allowing young people to win making me withdraw just because I have to tear gas, rubber bullet and club em to achieve my objectives.

        RedRocket
      3. Let’s see where Buzet somehow didn’t apply excessive force to you.

        1. Attempting to punch Kuro with the force to knock down a tree THEN pelting her with it.
        2. Throwing an arrow with her full strength back at Kuro which could have easily annihilated her.

        It’s only when Illya joins the fight that she decides start being more passive even though she uses a pretty lethal finger strikes that pierced through Illyas shield which would obviously be deadly if she landed a hit. After that she threatens to crush Illya’s hand if she doesn’t move it from a card. Which is pretty stupid considering that Buzet could simply pick her hand up and forcibly pry it from her fingers given her strength. But no crashing her hand sounds like a better idea.

        Also again I really don’t see why you keep trying to bring real life comparisons into this. It DOESN’T WORK. Like I said before Buzet has the power to have complete control over the situation. Which is NOT what people have in real life. Buzet was clearly toying with the girls. Something that people DON’T do in serious situations in real life. She could have taken out everyone much quicker than she did but instead insisted on wasting time. When she found out kids were involved she didn’t go through a stage of “woah why are these children fighting me now?” she just goes to beating them up. There are no stages of hesitation that a decent human being would go through when she fought these kids. So why the hell should I care about her character? We haven’t been given her backstory, motivation or anything that is REQUIRED to make these characters redeemable. For all we know she could just be doing it because she likes to fight. So I don’t see where you are coming from here at all. You are trying to make something out of nothing. The anime has not made this characters actions justifiable. Her entire character was made for three things.

        1. Conflict at the end of the second season.
        2. Throw away comedic relief during half of the third season.
        3. A useful ally during the second half.

        THat’s it. Nothing more and nothing less so far.

        leatherhead333
  9. Feeling those oats after this episode, weren’t ya, Stilts? ;D

    Anyways though, thank Madoka that we’re finally getting back to PLOT (Nope, wait a sec. That’s not right. Maybe that’s it? No, still not quite right…)

    Oh wait, THAT’S IT. Oh yeah, that’s the sauce right there. That’s the freakin’ sauce.

    Someone get on that, like, five minutes ago.

    Disclaimer: Hello everyone, my name is Ryan Ashfyre and I have a problem. Or perhaps just a sufficient lack of sleep at the moment. Who’s to say?

    -Cough- Ahem. Yes, well… moving on.

    RIGHT. Climactic “final” battle finally coming up next ep, isn’t there? The mysterious eighth card (whomever could it possibly be?) with mana coming out the whazoo versus all our heroines in an all-out, Team Fortress-esque rockem sockem battle with the fate of the world at stake. What could possibly go wrong?

    LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!!

    Ryan Ashfyre
      1. @Stilts

        Some Private thing:

        Wage Slave Rebellion by Stephen W. Gee, at Random Curiosity (Dec 14, 2015)

        It is from your Own WebPage under Media. You can see into the Future? 🙂

        it should be Wage Slave Rebellion by Stephen W. Gee, at Random Curiosity (Dec 14, 2014). Right? 🙂

        WorldwideDepp
      2. Mine is that Iri in a bikini already makes this the greatest episode in “Fate” history. Add in Liz’s melons and Luvia in THREE of her good dresses (cause she has some really bad ones) and this is worthy of being called PLOT development!

        Aex
  10. I think i know why She take her with them.
    https://randomc.net/image/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya/Fate%20kaleid%20liner%20Prisma%20Illya%20Zwei%20Herz%20-%2006%20-%20Large%2034.jpg

    Rin said, it is Higher-Ups decision. But if the Higher-Ups are our Manga-ka then i probarly know the reason

    Speculation Protection:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    WorldwideDepp
    1. Its highly implied with a throwaway line in an earlier chapter of the manga that Rin’s parents (both of them) are alive and well. The scene wasn’t on the anime though.

      fragb85

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